“So here’s an exercise: the next time someone asks you to do something that might interrupt your creative flow, just say no. Then let’s see what kind of creative output comes in that space.”
— Secret to Creativity: Learning How to Say ‘No’
May. 23 2013
Via GOOD
#just say no! #work #creativity
1 note

Can I pick your brain?

  • 1. Can I pick up a check? (Credit: A. Owens & T. Gordon)
  • 2. Can I pick your nose?
  • 3. Can I pick my nose?
  • 4. Can you pick up my tab at Per Se?
  • 5. No. (*Here are my rates.)
May. 22 2013
Via meredithfineman.com
#work #careers #no longer working for free #unless you pay my rent and/or student loans
1 note
27 Things Advertising People Know To Be True

27 Things Advertising People Know To Be True

May. 22 2013
Via BuzzFeed
#work
4 notes

lessons from The Awl:

I try to gently nudge him in another conversational direction by saying something mild and loving, like, “Please shut the fuck up right now.”

“Is this a good idea? What do you think? Can you help me? Do you want to publish this? What would you change?”

… you’re standing there saying, “Well? What should this be? What should I be? Who the fuck am I anyway? Do you even love me anymore?”

And sometimes, in order to take total, true creative responsibility, you have to shut people out for a while. You have to stop walking around like a giant fucking question mark. You have to stop looking for reassurance from half-interested friends, and you have to stop asking other people to help you shape your work from start to finish. Calm the fuck down and get back to work. Talking in circles is just a form of procrastination. Asking for guidance but not actually wanting guidance is a way of justifying inaction and self-pity. Letting it out is one thing; repeating yourself indefinitely is another.

“Shut up. Go finish your shit and then edit it again and again and again until it’s great. When you’re done, then we can talk some more.”

May. 15 2013
Via The Awl
#writing #careers #work #life
3 notes
fastcompany: How color-coded notes make you a more efficient thinker: Separating “branches” of your map by color stimulates the creative side of your brain, helps you visually separate and recall distinct themes of the stuff you’re working through, and encourages you to map through even boring topics that seem cut-and-dry. “Add a dash of color … and all of a sudden the notes come alive. They are unique, they are unusual, they are memorable and they are more interesting.” More… Fuck Yes! ya’ll don’t know about my stationery / note taking habits but I’m a HUGE nerd for color coding systems. I always must have 3 colored pens on me (blue & black to write out listicles and to do’s; red for updates and action items) plus multiple colored highlighters (green and yellow for immediate attention; blue and pink for fun). I cannot stand when someone interrupts my system!

fastcompany:

How color-coded notes make you a more efficient thinker:

Separating “branches” of your map by color stimulates the creative side of your brain, helps you visually separate and recall distinct themes of the stuff you’re working through, and encourages you to map through even boring topics that seem cut-and-dry.

“Add a dash of color … and all of a sudden the notes come alive. They are unique, they are unusual, they are memorable and they are more interesting.”

More…

Fuck Yes! ya’ll don’t know about my stationery / note taking habits but I’m a HUGE nerd for color coding systems. I always must have 3 colored pens on me (blue & black to write out listicles and to do’s; red for updates and action items) plus multiple colored highlighters (green and yellow for immediate attention; blue and pink for fun). I cannot stand when someone interrupts my system!

May. 14 2013
Via fastcompany
#work #stationery
73 notes
“I don’t think that to work is to live,” Lawrence says. “Work is alright in proportion: but one wants to have a certain richness and satisfaction in oneself, which is more than anything produced. One wants to be.”
— What You Do Is Not (Necessarily) Who You Are — LadyBits on Medium
May. 13 2013
Via medium.com
#work #careers #jobs

“Jumpstart your career in the blogosphere” ➔

May. 10 2013
#careers #work #the m word

How Writers Can Use Email to Share Their Work | MailChimp ➔

and with that I decided this summer needs to be a summer of writing and emailing and promoting the stuff that makes me happy. I gotta get my happy back!

May. 9 2013
#writing #work
1 note
“What advice would Bennett give to a journalist considering a job at a brand-affiliated publication? “Decide if you’re comfortable feeling like a PR person, and if you’re not, make sure you can do content that doesn’t suck. Or just say fuck it and take that $$$$$$,” she says. “No, but seriously, I think it’s possible to create good, compelling content for a brand—and you’ll likely be given the resources to do so, but I think it all depends on the brand and the bosses. One thing to ask: Will your work have to be approved by PR?” Also, be aware that there is a significant culture gap between traditional media companies and tech startups—for better and for worse. “Tumblr has no phones,” Bennett says. “So we get there, and I’m all, ‘I need to do interviews,’ but everyone’s like, ‘Oh, we just use our cellphones.’ This was before they hired a sales team. So I’m conducting interviews on my cellphone, which cuts out constantly, in the hallway in the elevator duct, ‘cause there were also no phone booths. I had Aziz Ansari on the phone one time, and I couldn’t hear a fucking thing he was saying. My phone dies as I’m trying to record it. Ultimately we almost had to kill the interview because it was so bad.” If you do take the leap, don’t expect any more stability than you had at your old-media job. “In the end, Tumblr decided it didn’t work, for reasons we’re not sure of,” Bennett says. “The truth is, I don’t have any regrets about going to work for Tumblr. Getting to experiment in this space—even if it ultimately led to being unemployed after barely a year—was way more exciting than watching budgets shrink, ad pages shrink, and everything else that has happened at old media outlets like Newsweek over the past year.”
— #realtalk: Branded but ‘independent’ media
May. 2 2013
Via cjr.org
#content #advertising #tumblr #reading #work

“no snarkfest 2013”

Apr. 29 2013
#work
“Lately - due to not working and due, too, to observing how much more prestige and authority other people with less ability carry - it seems to me, now that I definitely want rewards during my lifetime, that given a good talent, its recognition and elevation to great are utterly dependent on expolitation and outside funny-business, the personal approach. If someone doesn’t do this for you, you must do it yourself. Walter Duranty at Carol Hill Brandt’s the other day described to me Bolitho’s attitude toward this - sweep into a room no matter your height. Above all, be a great genius to your friends… Since I have always been disparaging about my work to my friends, I read a lesson in this. Observing elsewhere, I see how certain friends make good by sheer social contact - a flair for knowing who’s who, for using these people without aggression. Success is a gift - like any knack for weaving something out of a few strings which to the rest of us are nothing but a few strings.”
— Dawn Powell, New York Diaries
Apr. 24 2013
#work #social networking jerk #life
(via 33 .gifs to describe your workday | The Work Buzz)

(via 33 .gifs to describe your workday | The Work Buzz)

Apr. 23 2013
Via theworkbuzz.com
#work
“Consider that expecting everyone else on your team to respond to emails at 6am within fifteen minutes of you sending them because you’re an insomniac workaholic will only lead to sleep deprivation and poor decision making for everyone involved.”
— Don’t be the reason people quit — on management — Medium
Apr. 17 2013
Via medium.com
#work
3 notes

Never Ask a Busy Person to Lunch. Here’s Why: ➔

noted.

but also note if you ask me to lunch, I’d be delighted. I’m not that busy.

Apr. 17 2013
#work #i'm busy #biz
1 note
Apr. 5 2013
Via amzn.to
#writing #writers #reading #career #work #New York City
6 notes